Results 1,541-1,560 of 2,815 for speaker:Tony Killeen
- Written Answers — Health and Safety Regulations: Health and Safety Regulations (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: The new Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2006 will come into effect on Monday 6th November 2006. The Health & Safety Authority has committed to carrying out over 7,000 inspections in the construction sector this year. On Monday last, 9th October, the Authority commenced a series of seminars and workshops aimed at getting the industry up-to-speed with the...
- Written Answers — Industrial Disputes: Industrial Disputes (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: On 26 April 2006, the Labour Court made a recommendation regarding redundancy terms for Irish Sugar workers at the Mallow plant. The recommendation provided that redundancy should be 5 weeks' pay per year of service, where a week's pay would be defined as actual finishing salary, excluding overtime, plus statutory redundancy entitlement, plus a bonus payment for an orderly wind-down....
- Written Answers — Employment Rights: Employment Rights (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: The number of prosecutions initiated on behalf of the Labour Inspectorate under various pieces of employment protection legislation, in respect of the years 2004, 2005 and to date in 2006 is set out in the tabular statements. The primary function of the Labour Inspectorate is to seek compliance and rectification of any breaches identified, including payment of any arrears due to employees....
- Written Answers — Social Partnership: Social Partnership (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: The mechanisms for implementation of the new social partnership agreement, Towards 2016, are broadly the same as applied under Sustaining Progress. The steering group representing Government and each of the social partner pillars will be reconvened to take overall responsibility for the management of the implementation of the ten-year framework agreement as it applies to the wider non-pay...
- Written Answers — Employment Rights: Employment Rights (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: As the Deputy will be aware, the Social Partnership Agreement "Towards 2016" sets out a number of commitments with regard to employment standards and compliance including a commitment to establish an Office of the Director of Employment Rights Compliance (ODERC). The Office, which will assume the functions of the Labour Inspectorate and Employment Rights Information and Prosecution units of...
- Written Answers — Health and Safety Regulations: Health and Safety Regulations (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: The number of employers prosecuted by the Health and Safety Authority to date in 2006 for breaches of health and safety law is 22 and the amount of fines imposed by the Courts is â¬361,000. 9 of the cases were heard in the District Court and 13 in the Circuit Court. In addition, 3 individuals were prosecuted on indictment in the Circuit Court for breach of occupational safety and health...
- Written Answers — Equality Issues: Equality Issues (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: The dedicated budget for FÃS programmes for people with disabilities during 2005 totalled â¬62.317 million. The actual expenditure of this budget amounted to â¬56.737 million, representing an underspend of â¬5.58 million. The principal underspend occurred in the budget for the Wage Subsidy Scheme, due to its later than expected introduction in 2005. The Wage Subsidy Scheme is being...
- Written Answers — Proposed Legislation: Proposed Legislation (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: The Carer's Leave Acts 2001 to 2006 provide that a person may take leave of up to 104 weeks to care for a person, who is deemed by the Department of Social and Family Affairs to be in need of such care. A person who avails of carer's leave from his or her employment will have his or her employment rights protected for the duration of the leave and shall be regarded as still working in that...
- Company Registration. (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: I share the Deputy's concern that individuals, whose status based on the application of the standard criteria may be more appropriate to that of an employee, may seek to register as self-employed in order to abdicate and avoid their rights and obligations under employment rights legislation. There are also, of course, tax and PRSI implications but these are matters for the Revenue...
- Company Registration. (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: Deputy Quinn may have misunderstood the distinction I drew between the roles of the various Departments. The Office of the Revenue Commissioners has responsibility for taxation matters as the Department of Social and Family Affairs has for PRSI matters. It is necessary in these instances to be clear as to who precisely has which responsibilities. In previous discussions in the House I...
- Company Registration. (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: The strong advice we have received is that legislation is required in order for the joint investigation units to successfully prosecute in cases that are brought to their attention. It would be folly for the Department to embark on attempted prosecutions in circumstances where the legislative base was not sufficiently strong enough to sustain them in the courts.
- Health and Safety Regulations. (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: The voluntary protection programme is an initiative in workplace safety which has its origins in an EU-USA meeting on safety in the workplace and was introduced to Ireland in 2004 as a joint pilot initiative between the Health and Safety Authority and the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland. Since the pilot initiative was established, four companies have achieved the star safety...
- Health and Safety Regulations. (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: A number of initiatives have been undertaken by the Health and Safety Authority in conjunction with various sectors in respect of employment and health and safety in the workplace. We must bear in mind that this project is a pilot project and has not yet been evaluated by the board of the Health and Safety Authority. In the first instance, it appears sensible to conduct this evaluation and...
- Health and Safety Regulations. (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: At that stage, it will be a matter for the Health and Safety Authority, the board of which consists of representatives of the social partners, to consider the possible benefits and whether it might run with this initiative in the future.
- Proposed Legislation. (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: The issue of corporate manslaughter was considered while drafting the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill, which ultimately became the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. The Attorney General was of the opinion that there were much broader issues to be considered than those of safety, health and welfare at work. Legislating in the relatively confined area of occupational safety...
- Proposed Legislation. (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: Deputy Morgan is correct regarding the fines this year. However, there have been much greater fines, including those issued last year. A fine in the order of â¬500,000 was issued in one case. It is important to remember that the provisions of section 80 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 implements the second recommendation in the report of the Law Reform Commission. It...
- Proposed Legislation. (11 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: Section 80 of the 2005 Act deals more than adequately with what would be required in the context of safety, health and welfare at work. When the debate on the legislation took place in the House, the consultation paper of the Law Reform Commission was all that had been published. The legislation came into effect in September of last year whereas the report was not published until October....
- Written Answers — Redundancy Payments: Redundancy Payments (10 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: The Department on 17th February 2006, 12th May 2006 and 4th September 2006 received three applications for a statutory redundancy payment from Irish Ferries under the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 to 2003 amounting to approximately â¬4 million. These applications were submitted by means of the new redundancy on-line application system. The matter was referred to the Attorney-General for...
- Written Answers — Industrial Relations: Industrial Relations (10 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: I am not aware of any issues relating to increases in production costs, including labour costs, affecting Glanbia in particular. Terms and conditions of employment are determined in the main by a process of voluntary collective bargaining between the employers and employees or their representatives. Within this system parties are free to negotiate or not to negotiate. To support the process...
- Written Answers — Bullying in the Workplace: Bullying in the Workplace (10 Oct 2006)
Tony Killeen: There are no statistics available on the cost to the economy of workplace bullying. The Report of the Expert Advisory Group on Workplace Bullying was launched and published by me on the 17th August 2005 and it follows on from a 2001 Report by the Taskforce on the Prevention of Workplace Bullying. The recommendations of the 2001 Taskforce were implemented. One of the recommendations in the...